Clear2Pay acquires Lexcel (US) to widen global footprint and strengthen portfolio of test solutions

 

 

Lexcel Solutions provides payment testing software and services to third-party payment transaction processors, debit and credit networks, financial institutions, retailers, ATM/POS manufacturers and government organizations. Lexcel’s expertise and test solutions along with Clear2Pay’s Integri-branded test product range will create one of the most robust end-to-end testing platforms in the marketplace. The Lexcel team remains in place and now collaborates closely with the Clear2Pay team to foster the growth of test products and test services in North America. Lexcel’s clients include major US banks and foremost companies such as Heartland Payment Systems®, STAR® Network, Wincor Nixdorf, Mercury Payments®, United States Postal Service®, and WorldPay.

 

Michel Akkermans, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clear2Pay states: “The Lexcel acquisition is a perfect fit with our growth strategy of both expanding our footprint, as well as our product range. We feel that payments modernization requires more than flexible technology alone. Testing across the full process chain from device manufacturer to processor and the end user is of vital importance to the delivery of secure payments or value in an increasingly unified and hybrid world. With the new combined test tool offering we can support the broadest possible range of devices and technologies and thus develop testing as a strategic line of business for the bank, card and mobile payment space alike”.

 

“We are excited to be part of Clear2Pay, a company that takes a holistic view on the demands of the payments industry with its technology, solutions and people. This creates great opportunities not only for Lexcel, but for our customers as well,” said Carl Kubitz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lexcel. “We are looking forward to expanding the array of test and payment solutions to our current and Clear2Pay’s customers”.

 

Jürgen Ingels, Chief Financial Officer and co-founder of Clear2Pay concludes: “The Lexcel acquisition is the second deal funded by the proceeds of our 50 million euro capital increase, a fund raising round we concluded late 2009 with a consortium led by Aquiline Capital Partners. We expect more acquisitions to follow in the coming quarters that will further enhance Clear2Pay’s position in the global payments industry.”

Clear2Pay is a payments modernization company that actively supports many global financial institutions to meet their payments unification goals through its pure SOA Open Payment Framework (OPF). Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the company facilitates banks and financial organisations in their provision of payments services, whether they be Card, ACH, Branch, Bulk, High Care or International payment transactions. Clear2Pay's innovative technology helps to reduce transactions processing costs, and to deliver new, compelling payment services in a competitive way. Functions embrace payments origination, reporting, linkage with back-office processing systems, clearing, netting and settlement. In addition the company offers a range of value added payment technology solutions and services such as e-Banking, the Integri Open Test Platform, ChargeBack, Strategic Consultancy and Payments Training through a dedicated Academy. Clients include global and major regional financial institutions such as ING, Banco Santander, Crédit Agricole, VISA, MasterCard, BNP Paribas, The Federal Reserve, NETS (Denmark), The People Bank of China (PBOC), Bank of East Asia, Rabobank, The Co-operative Financial Services and Commonwealth Bank. Clear2Pay operates out of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, China, Malaysia and Singapore and currently employs over 750 staff. Recently, the company was awarded the XCelent Customer Base 2010 award for its undisputed largest payment hub customer base, both live and under implementation.